It’s true that manufacturing jobs are decreasing, but rather than blame the Chinese, your anger would be better targeted (if not better justified) if you blamed American innovators and even American manufacturing workers. Productivity per-worker in U.S. manufacturing plants is so high today because modern technology and training permits a small handful of workers to do what in the past took a horde of workers to do.

The greatest competition for Americans seeking manufacturing jobs comes not from the Chinese or from other foreign workers; it comes from other Americans – and the technology they work with – who produce so much per worker that relatively few manufacturing workers are needed today.